On Aug. 28, the Society of Broadcast Engineers filed comments with the FCC objecting to a request from Globalstar to be allowed to deploy Ancillary Terrestrial Component (ATC) service base stations across the entire 2,483.5MHz to 2,500MHz MSS ATC band.

Currently, 2,487.5MHz to 2,493MHz is available for Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) ATC service. TV Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS) Channel A10 is located at 2,483.5MHz to 2,500MHz.

In its filing, the SBE called such a deployment by Globalstar or any other MSS ATC service “premature” — regardless of whether the narrower swath of spectrum or the Globalstar-requested wider allocation is used — because of grandfathered TV BAS operations on Channel A10.

The SBE also pointed out that TV BAS Channel A10 operations are co-primary with MSS ATC. The society filing said “no MSS ATC deployment can occur until TV BAS operations have first been re-farmed so that they would no longer be cochannel with MSS ATC.”

Previously, the SBE had proposed refarming three 2.5GHz TV BAS Channels (A8 at 2,450MHz to 2,467MHz, A9 at 2,467MHz to 2,483.5 MHz and A10) to 12MHz-wide digital channels from their current 17MHz- and 16.5MHz-wide analog channels. Additionally, the society has called for those narrower digital BAS channels to be repacked, starting at 2,450MHz. If the society’s recommendations were followed, 1.5MHz between the top of the repacked BAS channels and the bottom of the MSS ATC service at 2,487.5MHz would be available to serve as a guard band.

In its filing, the SBE told the commission that if the Globalstar request to expand the MSS ATC band were granted, the action would “perpetuate the overlap with TV BAS Channel A10, even once refarmed to Channel A10d2.”

The society told the commission that once the 2.5GHz TV BAS refarming was completed, it would not object to Globalstar MSS ATS down to 2,486MHz, “the top of the final stage refarmed TV BAS Channel A10d2” as long as the limit on out of band emissions from MSS ATC base stations were increased from -44.1 dBW/30 kHz dB suppression to 67 + 10log (TPO Watts) dB suppression.